Thursday, December 22, 2011

I didn't make this up (wish that I would have, but simply reposted it).

To My Liberal Friends:
Please accept with no obligation, implied or explicit, my best wishes for an environmentally conscious, socially responsible, low-stress, non-addictive, gender-neutral celebration of the winter solstice holiday, practiced within the most enjoyable traditions of the religious persuasion of your choice, or secular practices of your choice, with respect for the religious/secular persuasion and/or traditions of others, or their choice not to practice religious or secular traditions at all. I also wish you a fiscally successful, personally fulfilling and medically uncomplicated recognition of the onset of the generally accepted calendar year 2011 but not without due respect for the calendars of choice of other cultures whose contributions to society have helped make America great. Not to imply that America is necessarily greater than any other country nor the only America in the Western Hemisphere . Also, this wish is made without regard to the race, creed, color, age, physical ability, religious faith or sexual preference of the wishes.

Thursday, December 15, 2011

So, it has happened! You were preparing for this moment, hoping and praying that it would never come, but deep down inside, knowing that it would.

The 2012 solar storm hit us with a vengeance bringing EMP destruction with it. It was the Carrington event to end all others. Coast to coast, even around the world, computer chips that controlled everything from your toaster, to your modern automobile, to the multi-million dollar switching station that sent power to your home were fried with the immense electronic storm that took a millisecond to sweep through everything connected (and most things not connected) to the grid.

So, you, being the dedicated prepper that you are, begin preparing for the grid-down scenario. You prime your hand pump well system, you begin turning all of your steak and roast that is in your freezer into jerky with your solar dehydrator. You break out your solar oven, and get ready to fix your first "TEOTWAWKI" meal. You strap on your Glock 19 and lay the AR15 down beside you.

Things go pretty well until later in the evening and you realize that its getting dark. DOH! You realize that your dusk to dawn light outside isn't going to come on and no matter how many times you flip the light switch out of habit as you walk from room to room in your house, the lights are not going to come on.

So, you go get your checklist and see what provisions that you made for light.

VIOLA, you were a great prepper and made the proper provisions. You had a faraday cage specifically for this very thing.

You run into your provisions room (as quick as you can, because it is dark in the house now), look for your ammo-box turned faraday cage that has your stuff stored and open it up.

What greets your eager eyes is worth its weight in gold now.
First off, you see four of your Olight M21 Warriors.

This is what is going to keep you in light for many years to come. You made provisions to hook this small battery charger to your solar panels that are on your outbuilding. Sure it takes a while, but you will have light.

You set this aside, with a sigh of relief, then reach the final bundle at the bottom of your ammo box. Its pretty heavy and you forget for a moment what you might have down there, as soon as the clear wrapper comes into view, you remember with yet another sigh of relief.

You lift the heavily cellophaned wrapper from the bottom of your box. In it contains almost 3 pounds of 18650 rechargeable batteries. Enough to keep you in light for quite some time to come.

And not just any light, but blindingly brilliant white light that is sure to cut through the darkest night to let you know what goes "Bump".

Things are not going to be easy at all, in fact, these will be the days that try men's souls, but you have taken as many prudent preparations as you could have, and now they will begin paying off in spades.

Friday, December 2, 2011

Ok, so this article isn't actually going to be THAT comprehensive, but I wanted to share a few thoughts.

I work in an office environment and have 2 other prepper minded folks that are just steps away from my office door. The other day we were talking about solar power and one of them commented that it was just so expensive to do anything with solar, that they were just focusing on other preps.

I told him that I disagreed and I shared with him how solar is fitting into my plans.

I have a very simple setup that consists of 45 watts of solar panels, 4 deep cycle batteries, a 1500 watt inverter and a charge controller (to be expanded as $$ allows). This simple setup allows me at least a modicum of electrical availability and expands my abilities exponentially. Here are a few examples of the avenue's that are open to me just because of this fairly small outlay in cash.

Before I begin, we have to remember what we are prepping for. Sure something like this might cost $400 now and is not nearly as glamorous as a new Eotech, but some of the things that the simple setup affords me in a potential WROL scenario will be worth substantially more.

First off, I can charge 12 volt batteries. Sure it takes a while, but I can do it. Certainly not as fast as hooking it to a 12 volt charger plugged into the grid, but remember what we are talking about here.

Secondly, I can charge other batteries. I have begun to stock up on an assortment of rechargeable batteries. AAA, AA, C, D, CR123 (for that Eotech), 18650's (for those that don't know what these are, I will be doing a review in a few days). Having a good stock of batteries and the ability to re-charge them will be a godsend during grid-down.

In a WROL scenario I certainly will not be advertising that I have flashlights and the ability to power them. But in a dynamic critical incident, it will be a wonderful force multiplier.

Thirdly, I can have artificial light in my house. Sure you can stock up on candles, kerosene and lanterns (which are all good to have in abundance and I do), but at $4/gallon for cheap kerosene, it doesn't take long to really come close to the cost of solar, and the solar will continue to provide its services long after the kerosene is used up.

Fourthly, once things start settling down and if I have survived the initial bump, I can trade recharged batteries for things that I need with the understanding that I get the dead batteries back so the cycle can start over again.

A full scale off-grid whole house solar system might not be in your future, but a small scale solar setup certainly should be.

Thursday, December 1, 2011

Every prepper/zombie hunter worth his salt should have an assortment of good blades for various tasks and is not the place to scrimp.
A good rule of thumb for buying a knife: If price is the only questions, then the answer is going to suck.

Before buying a blade, do some thinking and find out what you need it for, or for what purpose you are getting it.

You can get a big Rambo looking blade that will work great for batoning wood for a fire, hacking through brush or slaying that zombie that got too close, but for cleaning an animal, or getting a splinter out of a finger, it just won't do.

I am in no way associated with this site and some of the descriptions are a bit crude, but they have some very high end blades.